Independence Realty Trust, Inc.

keypad. If you'd like to withdraw your questions, press star followed by the number one. As a reminder, today's call is being recorded. I will now hand today's call over to Stephanie Crews and Kelly. Please go ahead.

Good morning and thank you for joining us to review Independence Realty Trust first quarter 2025 financial results. On the call with me today are Scott Schaefer, Chief Executive Officer, Jim Sebra, President and CFO, and Janice Richards, Executive Vice President of Operations. Today's call is being webcast in the Investors section of our website, irtliving.com, and a replay will be available via webcast and telephonically beginning at approximately 12 noon today, Eastern Time. Before I turn the call over to Scott, I'd like to remind everyone that there may be forward-looking statements made on this call. These forward-looking statements reflect IRT's current views with respect to future events and financial performance. Actual results could differ substantially and materially from what IRT has projected. Such statements are made in good faith pursuant to the safe harbor provisions of the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. Please refer to IRT's press release, supplemental information, and filing for the SEC for factors that could affect the accuracy of our expectations or cause our future results to differ materially from those expectations. Participants may discuss non-GAAP financial measures during this call. Copy of IRT's earnings press release and supplemental information containing financial information, other statistical information, and reconciliations of non-GAAP financial measures to most direct comparable GAAP financial measures is attached to IRT's current report on the Form 8K available in the SEC filings section of IRT's Investors website. IRT does not undertake to update forward-looking statements on this call or with respect to matters described herein. except as may be required by law. With that, it's my pleasure to turn the call over to Scott Schaffer.

Thanks, Stephanie, and thank you all for joining us this morning. I'm happy to report that 2025 is unfolding largely as we anticipated, despite the macroeconomic uncertainties that have emerged since our last call. We are on track to achieve both our full year same store NOI and core FFO per share guidance. Our communities are well located in areas with strong population and employment growth, and will continue to outperform even during periods of economic uncertainty. First quarter results were solid. We delivered 2.7% same store NOI growth driven by 100 basis point increase in average occupancy year over year, as well as an increase in our average effective rent since the first quarter of last year. Value add renovations also contributed to our same store results. During the quarter, we completed 275 units and achieved a weighted average return on investment of 16.2%. We now have 28 communities with over 4600 units and our ongoing value add program and expect to complete between 2500 and 3000 units this year at our targeted. We continue to execute on our long term investment strategy during the quarter. We sold our final asset in Birmingham, Alabama for 111M dollars, which completed our exit from that market and we expand scale in Indianapolis. by purchasing a 280-unit community for $59.5 million at a 5.6% economic cap rate. We also entered into a new joint venture investment that will develop 324 units in Charleston, South Carolina. We are under contract on two additional communities with a combined purchase price of approximately $155 million. One asset located in Orlando was developed in 2019 as adjacent to an existing IRT-owned community and will provide many operating synergies. The second property is a newly developed community in Colorado Springs that is in lease-up. These investments will provide an economic cap rate in the high fives during year one. Beyond these pending transactions, our acquisition pipeline remains strong. As Jim will discuss, we have ample liquidity to deploy into these and other accretive investments. Regarding our markets, apartment fund levels will improve across the portfolio during this year, as prior deliveries are absorbed and new supply deliveries decrease sharply from recent peak levels. In 2024, approximately 79,000 new apartment units were delivered across our submarkets, representing 6.1% of existing supply. We expect 32,000 new deliveries in 2025 and only 24,000 units in 2026, representing 2% and 1.5% of existing supply respectively. These deliveries equate to annual decrease of 60% in 2025 and an additional 24% in 2026. We expect our Sunbelt markets will benefit the most from expected declines in new apartment deliveries this year. Demand for our portfolio of high-quality, largely Class B communities has proven to be resilient over the years, even during challenging economic times, as demonstrated by our stable occupancy rates and positive blended rent growth. During 2024, nationwide new deliveries of multifamily units exceeded absorption, resulting in a negative net absorption of 21%. In 2025, while the national apartment market is expected to see positive net absorption of 1.5%, our submarkets are forecasted to rebound strongly and enjoy positive net absorption of 8.5%, as increases in population outpace new supply. Longer term, IRT submarkets are forecast to see population growth of seven people for every one newly delivered apartment over the next three years. Additionally, homeownership affordability factors that include elevated mortgage rates and home prices continue to favor renting. Across our top 10 markets, average home ownership costs are 94% higher than IRT's monthly rent. Importantly, IRT's average resident rent to income ratio is stable at approximately 21%, indicating our residents are on solid financial footing. As I mentioned earlier, we are sensitive to the macroeconomic uncertainties that have emerged since our last call. However, we believe supply and demand fundamentals in our markets will continue to be the dominant influence on our operations. Based on our outlook for continued strong demand and significant decline to new supply, our 2025 plan continues to assume ongoing rental rate gains without sacrificing occupancy. First quarter results have demonstrated this to date, and we expect this dynamic to accelerate as we advance into 2026. Before handing the call over to Jim, I want to thank the IRT team for their continued hard work and dedication to delivering exceptional service to our residents. I'll now turn the call over to Jim.